Christian Hales joined the Charleston Symphony in 2022 as Principal Bass.  I met him in person here in the San Francisco Bay Area before he departed for this exciting new chapter in his life.  We talk about how he got into music, his initial career goals and how they shifted toward orchestral performance, his audition process and lessons learned along the way, and much more.  Enjoy!   Subscribe to the podcast to get these interviews delivered to you automatically!   Connect with us: all things double bass double bass merch double bass sheet music   Listen to Contrabass Conversations with our free app for iOS, Android, and Kindle. Check out my Beginner's Classical Bass course and Intermediate to Advanced Classical Bass course, available exclusively from Discover Double Bass.   Thank you to our sponsors!   Carnegie Mellon University Double Bass Studio - CMU is dedicated to helping each student achieve their goals as a musician. Every week each student receives private lessons and participates in a solo class with Micah Howard. Peter Guild, another member of the PSO, teaches Orchestral Literature and Repertoire weekly. They encourage students to reach out to the great bassists in their area for lessons and direction. Many of the bassists from all of the city's ensembles are more than willing to lend a hand. Every year members of the Symphony, the Opera and the Ballet give classes and offer our students individual attention. Click here to visit Micah’s we bsite and to sign up for a free online trial lesson.   theme music by Eric Hochberg